“There are no friends at cards or in politics”. Seems like the author of this quote was exactly talking about the Indian context.

Firstly the upheaval in Tamil Nadu then the cross voting scenario in the presidential election followed by the destruction of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and now the brimming case of Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections. It seems like everything is just falling right into the BJP’s cradle.

The golden dust of BJP hit Gujarat when on Thursday, three of the Congress MLAs-Balwantsinh Rajput (Sidhpur), Tejashree Patel (Viramgam) and Prahlad Patel (Vijapur) — quit the party to join the BJP. The BJP immediately declared Rajput, who was the Congress’s chief whip in the Assembly and a relative of Mr. Vaghela, as its third candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held on August 8. Its other two candidates are party chief Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani.

Following this incident the re-election of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s close aide, Mr. Ahmed Patel seems to be jeopardized. Mr. Vaghela, a veteran politician and a former Congressian is said to be the script writer for stalling the return of Mr. Patel. He along with 6 other Congress people have left the party in last 2 days.

Mr. Vaghela with Mr. Narendra Modi

Fearing other MLAs will quit the party, Congress has sequestered its 40 MLAs at a recreational spot at a highway in Bengaluru. It has left behind in Gujarat four senior MLAs to plan strategy as six more Mr Vaghela loyalists expected to quit or vote against Mr. Ahmed Patel on August 8, when elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held. This includes Mr Vaghela, who is still an MLA and his son Mahendrasinh Vaghela.

BJP is set to win 2 out of 3 seats but the real gambit will be on the re-election of Mr. Patel. On one hand Congress is claiming that it still has enough numbers to ensure Mr. Patel’s re-election while BJP is claiming that another 10 Congress MLAs want to quit party. Be whatever, for now we can say only one thing with surety- BJP has bit the golden dust!